About this site

Welcome! Here you'll find writing and thoughts on writing from me, N.C. Randall, an independent author of speculative and literary fiction. It's a blog, and it's also how I publish my work.

About my writing

I write for primarily an adult audience, though some young adults might enjoy it, particularly if they enjoy more literary writing. I tend to write speculative fiction—fantasy or science fiction—but with a slight literary bent, putting the focus on characters and themes. When I write fantasy, it's "low fantasy," magical realism, or a whimsical fairy tale rather than a sword and sorcery epic. And instead of a galactic space opera, I'm more likely to write soft scifi or "scifantasy," where the technological elements might be more surreal than credible. I like to mix humor and lightness into my writing, even alongside serious themes.

Not that there's anything wrong with sword and sorcery and space operas. I enjoy reading those, but it's not what I write.

Signing up, or not

My writing is available for free, but to keep it from the prying eyes of search engines and AI data scrapers, it's not public. You need to "subscribe", at no cost, in order to read. This also allows you to get notifications when I post new content, if you like. I will never sell your email address or use it for any purpose other than sending you the notifications you have enabled in your preferences. I'm not a big business or organization, just a person. Please see the privacy policy for more details.

You may not redistribute my work in any form, which includes copying the text into an AI service or chatbot, or anywhere else, for any purpose. If you want to share my work with others, please simply share a link to the website. Please see the terms of use for more details.

Without signing up, you can still read my blog posts, where I talk about my writing and reading adventure as it unfolds. The site has no advertisements, whether you sign up or not, and I don't accept paid product placement. In the unlikely event any company or publisher ever sends me something for free in exchange for blogging about it, I'll be sure to make that crystal clear.

About me

This site isn't about me, it's about stories: how I write them, how I read them, how I love them. But if you must know, I am a human, species Homo sapiens, born in the 20th century AD, when Sol still blazed with the innocence and vigor of its 4.6 billion year childhood and AI existed only in the stories of Isaac Asimov. I have a gender, and a hair color, and dietary preferences which are, I assure you, extraordinarily interesting to hear about if you have a moment. I roast coffee and I grow tomatoes and I enjoy the feeling of falling asleep.

Or at least, that's what I tell people.